Sometimes the best family traditions are the simplest. And sometimes, they don’t cost you a dime.

For example, just after Thanksgiving, I lug all of our holiday books up from the basement – the ones we’ve accumulated over the years. I wrap them up in festive paper, and place them under our tree once it’s decorated. We use our books as a countdown of sorts – a way to mark the days as we make our way through the season. Each morning, the kids wake up and head immediately to the tree to find that day’s book (I mark each one with a number) and rip off the paper.

Each year, we add at least one new holiday book to our collection, but for the most part, the books the kids unwrap are our old standbys – even picture books from the toddler days – which doesn’t seem to matter to the children. They are equally thrilled to find an old favorite they’ve read a hundred times as they are to discover a new story. There’s just something about opening a gift!

I use just enough books so the last is unwrapped on Christmas Eve day, and I always end with “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” naturally.

This has become one of my favorite holiday traditions – it’s a fantastic way to count down to Christmas, and I love how excited the kiddos are to open a small gift each day, without us having to spend a dime. (And hey, you can never read too much, right? Or course not.)

I think they have a deeper appreciation for each book – if I put them all out in a basket at once, I don’t think we’d even read through them all. This way, each book is read at least once (usually right after it’s unwrapped), and they all seem a little more special.

As the kids and our collection grow, I’m sure we’ll swap out some of the less-relevant books in favor of newer, shinier volumes, but I imagine there will always be a handful of old favorites that stand the test of time. I wonder which ones they’ll be.

And I wonder which of those books will eventually get passed on to the next generation as our “new” tradition evolves into a family classic.